Welcome Back, Lake Lahontan!

Our man Taz, who holds down the technological fort year-round in Gerlach, sent us word today that the great Lake Lahontan has returned! Luckily, he sent not only word, but pictures!

Wait, what’s Lake Lahontan, you may ask? Well, our beloved Black Rock Desert is actually a dry ancient lakebed – the lake that was once Lake Lahontan (take a look at the dark rings around the mountains surrounding the playa and you’ll see where the waterline was). And during wet years, water flows from up north and fills – very thinly, it’s cool and creepy – some or all of the playa basin.

Now, given the historical drought that the Western United States has been experiencing this year (historic as in the worst since Charlemagne was emperor of Europe – like not fooling around historic), this is fantastic news. It’s still a drop in the bucket, but it’s a drop nonetheless, and we’ll take it.

All it’s gonna take is a helluva lot more to give us higher hopes of having a smooth, solid playa surface for Burning Man 2015. Keep your fingers crossed. (Click to embiggen the images.)

Will Chase is Burning Man's former Minister of Propaganda, working on global communications strategy. He was the editor-in-chief for the Jackrabbit Speaks newsletter and the Burning Man Journal, and content manager for Burning Man’s web properties. He also oversaw the ePlaya BBS and Burning Man’s social media presence. Will first attended Burning Man in 2001. He volunteered as the Operations Manager for the ARTery (Black Rock City’s art HQ) and was on the Burning Man Art Council from 2003-2008. He was Web Team Project Manager and Webmaster from 2004 until he transitioned to the Communications Department in 2009. He is now the Director of Content and Community for Maker Faire.

Makes for great reflection pics. I won’t be satisfied till the power of BMC’s folks can visualize trees, birds, more water into existence and it looks like Burning Man is Waterworld. Now wouldn’t that be beautiful!

Why? Why does all wilderness have to be lush, green and bountiful with singing birds and pretty flowers?

Sometimes starkness and absence of the familiar can open portals of appreciation of the raw world. It’s why I continue to go there outside of the event.

I’d challenge anyone to head out to the Lahanton lakebed in winter and just stand. Stand and meditate on the fact that there are only three things in your moment. There is the playa cruft beneath you, there is the air that surrounds you and there is the sky above you.

It’s the Burning Man playa in Black Rock Desert. (present day) Lake Lahontan Reservoir, Winnemucca Lake, and Pyramid Lake were all once part of a much larger lake in the Pleistocene Epoch known as Lake Lahontan, and it was absolutely massive.

I don’t know what you’re all getting all worked up about. It looked just like that outside my tent monday morning last burn. :-) Glad it’s looking like a wet year this year. Let’s hope it keeps coming down.

Just to clarify, I may not currently live in Nevada But i was born there in 1967 an move away in 2012, and I do say I know my History of Nevada, lakes of Nevada and and historical sites and I can say this … You are WRONG! that is not Lake Lahontan, that is Winnemucca Lake … Lake Lahontan is located South of Fernley in Silver Springs and is North of Yerington, Nevada… Before you start Posting anything regarding anything that is Part of the Great State of Nevada I suggest that you get your facts straight and do more research First.. I am offended that you Have posted something that you Obviously know nothing about… I want you to Get your Information correct and Fix this Page …and if you don’t I hope you will be completely Humiliated by your lack there of you information.

Just to clarify, as a geologist and long-time resident of Nevada, I believe that when they say Lake Lahontan they’re referring to the Pleistocene lake that Pyramid Lake, Winnemucca lake, and Black Rock Desert were all originally a part of.

Lake Lahontan was the ancient lake that covered most of northern Nevada including the Playa, Lahontan Reservoir is a man-made reservoir on the Carson River located between Silver Springs and Fallon. The pictures are of the Playa with the annual flooding. Winnemucca Lake is the dry lake you pass between Nixon and Empire.

Oh Debora, you should have done your homework before you stepped in your own poo because pretty much every point you make is easily refuted by a simple online search. Better yet, try a library. Remember, you’re entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts.

Lake Lahanton was in fact the ancient Pleistocene lake that rose well above the playa. Equal in size (almost) to Lake Erie, the lake came about in part to glacial melt from glaciers extending on the eastern side of the high Sierra many thousands of years ago. At its highest the lake was appx. 800+ feet above where the Man burns.

If you’d like you can email me and I’ll gladly pass on every peer reviewed geology paper I’ve ever collected on the playa. Now go get that library card.

Over 9000 years ago, Lake Lahontan covered that entire area and was one the largest fresh water bodies in North America. It included Pyramid Lake, Winnemucca Lake as well as the entire area known now as the Black Rock Desert and probably included the area where Lahontan Reservoir is as well.

The shark is jumped. There is a freaking “Marketplace” link on the new web page. So many of us bled, sweated, argued, avoided cops, and somehow made it to the desert to put up BRC without a thought towards commodification, and now here we have exactly that thrown right in our faces.